As noted previously, I have been experiencing a seasonal slump in my painting routine. In an effort to jump start the process I decided to get stuck into a quickly painted, high turnover project starting with some Necron test pieces, followed by these ‘bots.

L to R: Space Crusade Chaos Android, EM4 Skeleton Robot, GW Necron

This approach has worked to an extent and the skeleton robot/Necron/Cyberdyne (Skynet-rons? I dunno) project is progressing at an acceptable pace. Pictured here are the latest models to roll off the Skynet conveyor belt.

The first guys finished since the test pieces are the EM4 “Skeletal Robots” shown. They were originally Grenadier Future Wars figures sculpted by Mark Copplestone I am pretty sure, now manufactured by EM4.

These figures are obviously inspired by the Cyberdyne look shown above. As such they are less hunched than the Necron or Chaos Android figures shown before. The Skeleton Robots are arguably a little large to be reasonably expected to pass themselves off as a human when covered in human meat, even human meat of Schwarzenegger like proportions. Not that it matters for my purposes of course.

The figures were nicely sculpted and cast as I would expect from both Copplestone and EM4. I quickly painted the lot in an identical fashion to the earlier test pieces.

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I don’t like the models at all, but they do what it says on the tin! =) You’ve done a proper job on them though, and it’s nice to see you back in action!

I stalled painting the Doom Forgers and to get back in action I took a similar approach to things. I painted up a handfull of wolves. Rather ugly sculpts from Blue Moon, with rather shoddy drybrush jobs – but they’ll work well as a group on the table. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

After I’m done with them (eight done, four more to go) I’ll get stuck in with the bloody dwarves again. Don’t know why, but I detest painting the old 2nd edition BB dwarfs. I think we had this discussion already. Is it the quilted tummies or the large, round pads with no discernable features? Or is it just the colour scheme (white… meh!)? I know for a fact that I’ll be happy once they’re all based up and good to go! Need to sort the varnish situation too, before I play with them.

Thanks for the feedback Mattias. It is good to be getting some stuff finished and posted up again, even if they are simple paint jobs like these 🙂

Out of curiosity, what is it that you dislike about these miniatures? They are not the best miniatures that I have ever seen and they are definitely a little bit retro, but I think that they are quite decent. I particularly like the drum-fed weapons. What is it that you dont like?

We have discussed getting bogged down painting white BB dwarfs before alright 🙂 Sometimes sidelining the troublesome project and cleansing ones palette (literally and figuratively) and churning out a more straightforward, workhorse set of models is the way to go. Its certainly what I am doing with these Necron-terminators and it sounds like thats what you are doing with your wolves. Getting things moving again is the important thing. I am looking forward to seeing your finished wolf pack.

I quite enjoy painting white on figures, but an entire team wearing mainly white uniforms would still be daunting.

Don’t rightly know… It probably has something to do with me being devoid of robot fetishes. One of the things I dislike is the weaponry. They have a “home made conversion” look to them, a bit flat and dull.

The only robots I ever thought cool were the various droids of Star Wars. I never thought much of the T100 and while Robert Patrick was hella cool, the T1000 was a bucket full of silvery goop. Not cool! The androids of Alien(s) were cool, but in the end mostly human.

And the models are a bit stiff looking (maybe not surprising, given the subject matter).

Being devoid of robot fetish could be a factor alright 🙂 I on the other hand am riddled with robot fetish.

The weaponry does have a slightly amateurish look. I suspend my disbelief further and assume that its because it is either prototype weaponry like that used in the Blade movies or else high tech weaponry with fewer visible bells and whistles. But in truth I agree with you: the weapons look a little too much like the industrial fittings, brass rod and styrene that they were originally made from.